Wide-open race for Tory leadership lays bare party divisions

Conservative divisions were laid bare on Tuesday as a wide-open field of eight MPs made it through to the first round of the fractious contest to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Despite the 1922 Committee setting a threshold of 20 MPs to secure a place on the ballot paper, just three of the 11 declared candidates were eliminated on a frenetic day in Westminster.

Rishi Sunak is the frontrunner among MPs by some margin, with the publicly declared support of more than 40 colleagues, but it remains unclear who will join him in the final two.

Conservative MPs will vote on Wednesday, with any contender attracting fewer than 30 votes eliminated. Further rounds will follow until the field is narrowed to two, with Conservative members then making the final decision.

Brady said eight candidates had met the threshold to proceed: Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt, Sunak, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and Nadhim Zahawi.

Tugendhat, considered to be a centrist, was introduced by his highest-profile backer, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the trade secretary. He said his leadership would rise to the challenges of the cost of living crisis in a way his cabinet rivals had not.

Throughout the day the backers of contenders who had not yet met the threshold of 20 supporters frantically tried to win around their colleagues.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, announced just before 2pm that she would not be standing. There had been rumours that she might strike a deal with her fellow Brexiter Braverman, but Patel declined to publicly back any other candidate.

Rehman Chishti, the little-known backbencher who had launched a quixotic leadership bid despite having no declared supporters, withdrew.

Other senior supporters present including Oliver Dowden, who resigned as party chair after the disastrous byelections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield, and the former international trade secretary Liam Fox.